Hey, Urban nomads! Welcome to another post by the Nomad Chronicles.
In my previous post, I mentioned about the negative impacts of cruise tourism to the environment. Now, have you ever wondered what happens to the cruise ship (which you might have taken on a holiday) and what happens to it when it retires? In this post, we will be talking about the ship breaking industry and its surprising impacts on the environment.
A cruise ship being broken down at a shipyard
Ship breaking (commonly known as ship demolition) engages in the procedure of dismantling ships for scrap metal; which are either scrapped or disposed. Ship breaking process happens in facility known as a ship-breaking yard and are often found in many developing nations.
The reason for such locations are often because they excel in having extremely low labor costs and have a blatant disregard for environmental laws. This is the primary reason why the largest shipbreaking yards continue to be operated in countries like Bangladesh.
Where Cruise ships go dead, workers sacrifice everything
Economic and environmental benefits to Ship breaking that have lobbied it to be a powerful industry (Basha, 2007).
- Steel production – Ships contain a vast amount of steel, which can be reused; thereby saving countries save import cost by importing less steel.
- “Green industry” –- the breaking of ships provides valuable raw materials to steel industries, asbestos for re-manufacturing factories, even furniture, electrical and electronic equipment.
- The industry of Ship breaking provide large Government tax revenues via import duties and yards taxes.
- it provides employment opportunities for many of the poorest people who are living below the poverty line
Environmental concerns with ship breaking
The primitive conditions in these shipyards provides the ideal environment for pollutions to accumulate and leech into the surrounding seabed, causing severe contamination and disrupting the entire marine food chain.
Toxic smog from ships release into the environment from ship breaking
Serious environmental issues such as coastal soil and seawater contamination are common in the scrape yard. Wastes found in scrapped ships (especially oil and oil substances) are drained and pumped directly into the sea; coupled with lax environmental law leading to large quantities of toxic materials to escape into the environment (Buerk, 2006).
Water pollution due to heavy metals, oil and other contaminants present during ship breaking
Ship scrapping activities also produces oil pollution and include discharge of ammonia, metal rust, which harms native bird populations and numerous marine organisms (especially plankton and fishes that reside in the vicinity)
Typical examples of these pollutants include asbestos (used on old ships as a heat insulator), PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and lethal POPs (persistent organic pollutants). At present, the cost of removing asbestos and expensive insurance are reasons why ship breaking continue to be not be economically viable in most develop countries.
Heavy Metal found abandon in Shipyards
Furthermore, the pollutants released can cause adverse health problems – from cancers and pulmonary problems to hormonal system disruption (Burek, 2006). The culprits are the heavy metals are found in paints, coatings, electrical equipment.
To conclude, the environmental impacts of Cruise tourism does not simply occur only during its voyage at sea. It is important to understand the totality of cruise tourism to paint a clearer picture on its impacts on the environment. The ship cemeteries now house all the once-beloved gleaming cruise ships –dumped onto beaches of some of the poorest countries only to be forgotten and stripped of its honour. So the next time you decide to take a vacation to Bahamas on a cruise, do consider the harm and injustice it does to the environment.
References:
Buerk, R. (2006). Breaking ships: How supertankers and cargo ships are dismantled on the beaches of bangladesh. New York: Chamberlain Bros.
Basha, S., Gaur, P. M., Thorat, R. B., Trivedi, R. H., Mukhopadhyay, S. K., Anand, N., . . . Jha, B. (2006;2007;). Heavy metal content of suspended particulate matter at World’s largest ship-breaking yard, alang-sosiya, india. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution, 178(1-4), 373-384. doi:10.1007/s11270-006-9205-z